Abstract
The purposes of the present study were to construct an Alienation Scale and to investigate developmental change during adolescence, and to clarify the relationship between alienation and adjustment.
The first study was designed in order to construct a psychological scale of alienation.
72 items were selected according to the concept of alienation as a psychological term. Then, these items were administered to 272 subjects and analysed by means of item- and factor-analysis. Consequently, the alienation scale consisted of 44 items which could be divided into 4 factors, i. e., the feeling of loneliness, emptiness, oppression-restriction, and selfcontempt.(see TABLE 1)
Next, the reliability and the validity of this scale were examined. The reliability coefficients assessed by the split-half method were very high (r_??_0.95). In the analysis of the stability of the scale, two intervals (a month, a year) were set up. The correlation coefficients were relatively high in a month interval, but in the case of one year, low correlations were seen in some subscales of alienation. It would suggest that the concept of alienation consisted of two facets, i. e., comparatively stable dimension related to personality and the more sensitive dimension to the external factors (circumstances). Furthermore, criterion-related validity and construct validity were found.(see TABLE2, 3, 4)
The second study was designed to examine developmental change of alienation scores in adolescence and to clarify the relationship between alienation and adjustment. The main findings were as follows;
1. The alienation scores decreased developmentally during adolescence. And sex differences were seen in the subscale of self-contempt.(see TABLE 5)
2. Alienation had a significant negative correlation with ego identity score.(see TABLE 6)
3. Problem students, such as delinquents selected by the teacher, showed significantly higher alienation scores than non-problem students.(see TABLE7, 8)
